Fracture Roundtable Impressions

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A trio of editors discuss the latest from LucasArts.

By Erik Brudvig, Daemon Hatfield, and Tal Blevins

Set in a future where the United States has literally been fractured by global warming and a series of natural disasters, Fracture has a science fiction story grounded in the fears of today. A full blown second American civil war has erupted, pitting those east of the mid-country rift known as the Atlantic Alliance against the western states who have allied with several countries from Asia to form the Republic of Pacifica.

It's not just the giant ocean that has formed through the middle of the United States that has set these two sides against each other. Genetic engineering tests done on humans had produced some unforeseen and horrific results, prompting the eastern seaboard to put a ban on the practice. When the scientists moved west and continued work on genetically modifying superior humans, eventually labeled Human 2.0, the US government put a federal ban on such research. This did not go over well and the western states announced their intentions to secede.

This is where Mason Briggs, the demolitions expert and hero of Fracture, steps into the picture. The war has begun, but this is far from a traditional war. The Atlantic Alliance, of which Mason fights for, has developed some fancy technology after their focus on research shifted away from genetics. The Republic of Pacifica, meanwhile, has produced superhumans to fight the war. Both sides have learned how to use terrain deforming weapons that they can use to modify their terrain to gain a tactical advantage, create cover, attack enemies, and cross otherwise impassable terrain.

As Peter Hirshman, Vice President of Product Development for LucasArts, put it, "For the first time, you can reshape the world around you on the fly in real-time."

Running on the proprietary Despair Engine, this in-game terrain deformation is built on technology that is impressive, to say the least. The big question then is, will the gameplay match up to the cool idea that Fracture is based on?

Daemon Hatfield: I like the direction they're going with the story. Hopefully they'll play up the civil war angle so there is some emotional connection with the conflict; kind of that "brother against brother" concept people sometimes use when referring to our actual Civil War. In the first footage LucasArts showed, it was pretty dramatic to see that battle taking place in an empty San Francisco Bay under the Golden Gate Bridge. (Notice the bridge was still in tact, though, as they probably can't show national landmarks taking damage. Annoying -- they did it in X-men 3!)

LucasArts said one of the reasons they went with a third-person perspective was because they want players to identify with this "cool character," Mason Briggs. But so far we haven't seen any evidence of this guy having a personality.

The gameplay has the potential to be pretty revolutionary. Anytime a game allows for more creativity, imagination, and customization on the player's part my ears perk up. For me the real selling point will be the multiplayer, which could add a new dimension for gamers to play with. Up to now options for cover and ambush have been limited to what the developers made available to us. Putting that power into players' hands could be awesome, indeed.

Erik Brudvig: LucasArts and Day 1 Studios made a big point to discuss their emphasis on characters and story, even going so far as to remind us that there are essentially only a handful of truly memorable characters in videogames. I like the general idea of the story and putting the camera in a 3rd person over the shoulder viewpoint definitely helps add to the goal of making you remember the main character. I'm not so sure if the art design quite matches the ambitions of the rest of the game. We need to learn more about Mason Briggs, but the initial reaction to seeing the main character is almost one of instant recognition - we've played the superhero soldier how many times now? If they can overcome that stereotype, gamers will benefit greatly.

I agree that the gameplay has some major potential, but it could go in one of two directions. From what we saw, it looks like they're going to leave a lot of the decisions on how to approach a battle up to the player. That is generally a good idea, but I've seen far too many games lose themselves from straying too far in that direction. Too many options can be overwhelming, just as too few can be boring. Provided Fracture can find that happy medium, this looks like it could be a game that sets itself apart from the rest of the shooter pack.

We saw some cool weapons, like the Avalanche Gun that fires giant boulders, and the dynamic landscape presented some nice variety in the ways you can approach combat. I particularly enjoyed the contrasting demonstrations of the thoughtful player versus the run and gun aficionado. Leaping into battle tossing terrain deforming grenades and firing off guns looked hectic and adrenaline pumping, but we also saw Mason Briggs raise the land up to create a wall and use it as cover. The guns can deform the land too, so we saw the player shoot out a little alley in the top of the land wall he brought up as a shooting gallery. This only lasted a moment, though, as the enemy bullets were also slowly chipping away the cover he raised.

With all of the potentially different styles of combat, the competitive multiplayer side also has a lot going for it. I'm more interested in playing the co-operative mode that was briefly mentioned in the video interview I conducted. Imagine working together to create even more spectacular deformations of the land to pin down enemies or just create some swank looking landscapes. People are going to have a heyday just figuring out how far they can push this new concept.